At Airport, One Lane Doesn't Fit All
Posted on: Saturday, 17 May 2008, 09:00 CDT
By John Welbes, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
May 17--On the first day at least, security personnel didn't argue with the experts.
Self-selected security lanes for travelers, chosen by how well they think they know the security checkpoint routine, opened at MinneapolisSt. Paul International Airport's larger Lindbergh Terminal Friday.
When the security checkpoint line was busy early Friday afternoon, Brandy Brant, a traveler from St. Louis, slipped into the "expert" lane. It's one of three newly designated lanes among the terminal's six security checkpoints; passengers also can opt for a "casual traveler" and "family" lane.
When Brant made her way through, the lines were starting to get long. A friend of hers chose the "casual" lane and took 10 minutes longer than Brant to get to the other side.
Brant hadn't used the system before, but thinks it probably helped. "But we don't have a back-up in the security line like this either" in St. Louis, she said.
The system, which aims to streamline the move through security, is being implemented by the federal Transportation Security Administration in more than two dozen airports around the country. If the test checkpoint works well and passengers like it, it could be expanded to all MSP checkpoints in coming months.
"We're hoping that there's something in it for everyone," said Steve Wareham, the airport's director of operations.
When the checkpoint was busy early Friday afternoon, there had been a little bit of a learning curve for all involved. Security
screeners directing traffic often pointed travelers toward one lane or another, but the choice remains with the traveler.
One passenger who got in the expert lane ended up having liquids in containers that were too big to take on the plane. That slowed things down briefly, said security screener Jim Erickson, who was directing passengers to one of the three lanes. Presumably, "experts" are frequent travelers familiar with the routine and requirements of the security system.
"If they think they're experts we can't argue with them," he said. Generally, people in business attire were asked if they travel a lot, and then steered toward the expert lane.
By Friday around 3 p.m., only a slow trickle of passengers was moving through the checkpoint and there were no hold-ups. No one looked twice at singles in the family lane, which sometimes was unoccupied for long stretches.
Erickson said travelers commonly end up at the security checkpoints in the middle of the ticketing level, which are near some of the busier Northwest Airlines check-in counters. But the security checkpoints at either end of that level -- including the checkpoint where the trial is being conducted -- are sometimes much less congested, he said. Almost 22 million passengers made the trip through security checkpoints at the airport last year.
Wareham thinks that families in particular will like the new system, as they won't feel so pressured to speed it up. The three-lane system "has got a big customer-service component," he said.
Depending on the time of day, checkpoints using the system still will get busy, said Kenneth Kasprisin, the airport's federal security director. The new system "calms down the overall attitude around a checkpoint" as passengers are segregated based on their familiarity with the system or their needs.
By August, passengers passing through the ticketing level will notice another new addition at the airport: a Houlihan's restaurant on the pre-security side of the checkpoints. Airport officials hope the restaurant will be popular with people waiting at the airport to meet and greet friends.
Right now, to anyone without a boarding pass, the Lindbergh Terminal's restaurants and shops are out of reach.
John Welbes can be reached at 651-228-2175.
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Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)
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